Monthly Archives: December 2006
COMMUNITY BOOKSTORE HAS A WEBSITE: YAY
BIG NEWS and I mean BIG NEWS. Community Books has a WEB SITE. Yes, you heard me right. They’ve been working on it for quite while and I keep asking. Now it’s up and running. YAY to Catherine Bohne and staff.
It’s big news because Catherine is an admitted Luddite. A card-carrying Luddite. The store only recently replaced their computers—computers they’ve had since the early 1990’s (or earlier).
Luddite or not, she obviously recognizes the importance of having a web site because it’s such a great way to spread the word about a great bookstore, a store which is such an important place for many in this community.
I think the previous owner had a web site — they created it right before Barnes and Noble came to Seventh Avenue. At that time, the store took numerous measures to insure their existence on Seventh Avenue (web site, discounts, a cafe). They survived! Sadly, another Seventh Avenue bookstore, Book Link, fell victim to the economic pressures caused by the big mega-bookstore invasion.
In this day of mega-stores, I think the small, quirky, interesting stores have EVEN more value. A store like Community Books is a perfect antidote to all the sameness — the McDonald-ization of the world. What’s wrong with quirky, eccentric and unexpected?
So, a web site for Community Books is a great way to get the word out about all the interesting events at the store and elsewhere.
Today, she also sent out her yearly newsletter in PDF form with gift suggestions—it happens to be a great resource for all you book-buying gifters — BOOKS MAKE SENSATIONAL GIFTS I THINK.
cbjupitarbooks.com is the URL. Better bookmark that one because it’s hard to remember. The site has all sorts of cute illustrations of reptiles and rabbits. I’d say the site really conveys the vibe of the store, in all of its quirky splendor, quite well.
Here are some gift suggestions from the bookstore:
Theories of Everything : Selected, Collected, & Health-Inspected Cartoons by Roz Chast 1978-2006
by Roz Chast (Bloomsbury, $45.00): Everything from “Tuesday Night
Fever” to the “Prozac Mist Air Freshener” by our greatest chronicler of
the anxieties, superstitions, furies, insecurities, and surreal
imaginings of modern life. Yup. Even the “Flying Wall-to-wall carpet.”
Samuel Beckett : The Grove Centenary Edition
(Grove Press, $100.00): The definitive (and handsome) boxed set, edited
by Paul Auster. Two volumes of Novels, One of Dramatic Works, plus a
Fourth of Poems, Short Fiction and Criticism. Go Bananas.
In the Studio : Visits with Contemporary Cartoonists
by Todd Hignite (Yale, $29.95): Generously illustrated with full-color
reproductions, this unparalleled look at the cutting edge of the comic
medium provides interviews with the likes of Chris Ware, Daniel Clowes,
Art Spiegelman and Jaime Hernandez among others. Rare access to many
who usually decline to grant it.
Beautiful Evidence by Edward Tufte (Graphics Press,
$52.00): The long-awaited new book by the pre-eminent champion of
visual representation theory. “Science and art have in common intense
seeing, the wide-eyed observing that generates empirical information.
Beautiful Evidence is about how seeing turns into showing.” About how
representation can “delight both by the wonder of the spectacle and the
accuracy of expression.”
The Silver Spoon Cookbook (Phaidon Press, $39.95):
Considered the “bible” of authentic Italian cooking, this cookbook has
until recently never been available in English. 2,000 recipes cover the
basics, like the proper way to cook spinach (use just the amount of
water clinging to its leaves) to more difficult recipes, like braised
rabbit with rosemary. All three daily meals are accounted for–actually
four, because you must include dessert!
The Power of Art by Simon Schama (Ecco, $50.00):
“Great art has dreadful manners,” the author observes at the start of
this exploration of the power, and the purpose, of art. “The hushed
reverence of the gallery can fool you into believing masterpieces are
polite things … but actually the greatest paintings grab you in a
headlock, rough up your composure, and then proceed in short order to
re-arrange your sense of reality.” Schama focuses on eight
artists—Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh,
Picasso and Rothko—who, each in his own way, transformed the way we see
the world.
There are way more books in the continuation of this article:
STORE NEWS: DIANA KANE ON SEVENTH AVENUE AND MORE
Diana Kane, the stylish, somewhat pricey, but lovely lingerie and accessories shop on Fifth Avenue, is opening a Seventh Avenue store. It is going into the old Kiwi location on Seventh Avenue between Berkeley and Union. So I was wrong, I thought Peek-a-Book Kids was going in there. Nope, they’re going into the space occupied by Mi Casa, the fabric store on the corner of Berkeley.
Kiwi, a clothing star owned by local designers, which also sells other designers, too, has moved into a large shop on Seventh Avenue between President and Carroll.
Diana Kane is IN, Mi Casa is OUT. And Peek-a-Boo Kids, the Slope’s best kid’s shoestore, is moving down the block. Lots of movement on Seventh Avenue.
NO WORDS_DAILY PIX BY HUGH CRAWFORD
THE GRANDEST THEATER IN BROOKLYN
The New York Times’ had a piece yesterday about a possible rehabilitation of one of the great Brooklyn movie palaces, The Loew’s Kings. All I can think of is Richard Grayson’s marvelous story about the movie theaters in Brooklyn in his collection "And to Think He Kissed Him on Lorimar Street."
THE KINGS
The Kings was the grandest theater in Brooklyn: a French Renaissance palace whose lobby featured ornate chandeliers, bronze statues, and walnut paneling. Baroque murals with sinister satyr figures danced on the ceiling, and an ornamental peacock reigned above the stage. It was one of five “Wonder Theaters” that the Loews chain opened outside Manhattan in 1929.
In junior high, Eugene and I and the guys we hung out with would freeze our asses off waiting in long lines on Saturday mornings for the first showings of Goldfinger and A Hard Day’s Night.
In the early 1970s, as the neighborhood changed, white moviegoers abandoned the Kings and the other theaters on Flatbush Avenue for the newer twin theaters in shopping centers like Georgetowne and Kings Plaza. But Randi and I used to go here a lot, to avoid the Friday and Saturday night crowds at the suburban-like movie houses.
The last film we saw here was The Tamarind Seed, with Julie Andrews and Omar Sharif. We were practically the only white people in an audience of about a hundred, dwarfed in a theater meant to seat 3,500 people.
A documentary about the Kings appeared on PBS in the late 1980s and there always seems to be talk about reviving it now that the neighborhood has boomed again, saved by middle-class West Indians and Haitians. A deal for the Kings to reopen as part of the Magic Johnson chain fell through in the late 1990s because the theater is just too expensive to renovate.
The hulk of The Kings remains: shuttered except for occasional tours by select architecture and design students. Some of them have spotted pigeons flying over the dusty, cobwebbed maroon seats in that blasted ruin, a Sistine Chapel for connoisseurs of decay. — Richard Grayson
THIS FROM THURSDAY’S NEW YORK TIMES:
Everything looked good for the palatial Loew’s Kings Theater in
Flatbush, Brooklyn, for all of about six weeks, the period between its
opening on Sept. 7, 1929, and the stock market crash known as Black
Thursday. The ensuing Great Depression would quickly render it a palace
of misplaced optimism.
The vaudeville acts, which had
performed twice a day, dropped as if through a trap door in the stage
inside of a year. Silent films were fading away, too, and the
Robert-Morton Theater Pipe Organ, or “Wonder Organ,” was soon reduced
to playing during the sing-along “Follow-the-Bouncing-Ball” songs
between films.
Still, the gargantuan movie house with more than
3,600 seats, one of only five “Wonder Theaters” in the region, remained
in the business of showing films for almost 50 years, closing its doors
to everyone but thieves, vandals and vagrants in the late 1970s.
There
is no curtain to raise today, just another rattling metal gate on
Flatbush Avenue, beneath a stripped facade and facing a row of discount
clothing stores and crowded buses where trolleys used to pass.
The
city took ownership of the Loew’s Kings in 1979, and after false starts
since then, a new push is under way to return it to something like its
old self. There have been two tours of the theater for potential
developers in the last month, providing a rare glimpse at a little bit
left of what the theater used to be.
VA VA VOOM: BUST MAGAZINE SHOPPING SHOW
I think this event has been taking place for a few years. It sounds like fun. It’s in Williamsburg on Saturday, December 9th, 2006, from 11 am to 9pm. Bust Magazine is a pop culture feminist publication. Founded by Debbie Stoller in 1993 to provide a third-wave feminist perspective, many amous and influential woman have appeared on the cover, including Björk, Cher and Tori Amos.
Join BUST MAGAZINE for a massive holiday shopping bonanza running
all day (and into the night) at the Warsaw in Williamsburg, Brooklyn,
featuring crowds of crafters, cocktails, DJs, and dancing! Plus, a
special celebrity raffle!
Get jiggy with "Jingle Bells" and a gin and tonic
as you browse through hundreds of HANDMADE WINTER WARES from handbags
and knitwear to ornaments, jewelry, and cards. Last-minute holiday
shopping to do? Skip the mall and buy DIY!
COMPLIMENTARY COCKTAILS COURTESY OF Brooklyn Brewery, Sailor Jerry Rum, and Working Girl Wines from
At 6-7pm! And if you need to take a break from shopping, hit the dance floor
while enjoying music spun by DJs Dirty Jean, Amylulita, Lady Byrd,
Peppermintwist, Ultra V, Mahssa, and Miss Modular. Admission is just $1,
which also gives attendees a shot at winning a BUST load of booty in the
Craftacular Raffle! See you ho-ho-hos under the misteltoe!
WHEN: Saturday, December 9th, 2006, from 11 am to 9pm
WHERE: The Warsaw, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 261 Driggs Ave [at Eckford]
Brooklyn, NY (718) 387-0505
Wanna Buy a Housing Development?
This from NY1:
Less than a month after the
multi-billion dollar sale of Stuyvesant Town in Manhattan another of
the city’s federally-funded apartment complexes is reportedly up for
sale.Starrett City, which is now known as Spring Creek Towers, is on the
market. The 46-building development in the East New York section of
Brooklyn is home to some 14,000 residents. It’s the largest
federally-subsidized complex in the country.Experts say the sale could exceed one billion dollars.
Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper village were sold two weeks ago for $5.4 billion.
SCOOP DU JOUR
TODAY’S WEATHER: What’s it gonna do today?
HAPPENING: DECEMBER, 2006
Most of these listings are from Go-Brooklyn, a section of The Brooklyn Papers. Check it out for more news, reviews, events, and local advertising. For additional events always check Barbes for the best music in the Slope. And for what’s going on at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the BAM Rose Cinema go here. For movie times at the Pavillion and other local movie theaters go here.
HUMMINGBIRDS: Musical fun for the 3 to 5 year-old set and their caregivers. 2 pm to 3 pm. Prospect Park Audubon Center. Enter park at Lincoln Road and Ocean Avenue. (718) 287-3400. Free.
HEALING TALK: Vajradhara Meditation Center offers the talk "Healing Family Relationships." 2:45 pm to 4 pm. Area Yoga Center, 320 Court St. (718) 797-3699.
BAMCINEMATEK: presents "Czech Modernism: The 1920s to the 1940s." Today: "On the Sunny Side" (1933). In Czech with English subtitles. $10, $7 children and seniors. 6:50 pm. Also, "The Strike" (1947). 9:15. 30 Lafayette Ave. (718) 777-FILM. www.bam.org.
PLAY: Long Island University presents "The House of Bernarda Alba." $13. 7 pm. Flatbush Avenue and DeKalb Avenue. (718) 488-1089.
RECEPTION: Galeria Janet Kurnatowski presents "Untitled Number Something," new abstract paintings by Shane McAdams. 7 pm to 9 pm. 205 Norman Ave. (718) 383-9380. Free.
NEXT WAVE: Brooklyn Academy of Music presents "Red, Hot and Riot Live!: The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti." Program celebrates music of the late Afrobeat king, Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. $25 to $65. 7:30 pm. BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave. (718) 636-4100. Also, "Hedda Gabler." 7:30 pm. See Sat., Dec. 2.
BURLESQUE: Kick-off party and performance for The Great Boston Burlesque Exposition, a gathering of performers and educators. $8. 8 pm to 10 pm. Dance and cocktail party. $8. 10 pm. Or $12 for both events. Galapagos Art Space, 70 N. Sixth St. (718) 384-4586.
CUBAN MUSIC: Cunjunto Guantanamo performs. 9 pm to 11 pm. Five Front Restaurant, 5 Front St., between Dock and Old Fulton streets. (718) 625-5559.
ST. ANN’S WAREHOUSE: "Woyzeck." 8 pm.
GALLERY PLAYERS: "Torch Song Trilogy." 8 pm.